Bags are used in large quantities for, e.g. collecting garbage or freezing food. These bags are typically made of plastic foil. Because of the thinness and the high flexibility of the plastic foil, bags of this material are difficult to hold open while they are being filled. Filling a bag therefore takes a disproportionately long time. In addition the operator risks spilling, soiling the outside of the bag or the fingers of the hand holding the bag, especially when a fluid or viscous product is to be filled into the bag. Finally there is a risk of contaminating the inside of the bag, if it is touched by dirty fingers which is often the case, since the opening end of bags often tends to get folded inside and out a couple of times in order to strengthen and maintain an opening.
Therefore, in many cases, two people must help each other to successfully fill a bag, one to hold the bag open and one to fill the bag. In this manner, the risk of spilling and getting messy fingers by the content being filled in the bag is minimized. However, there is still a risk of contaminating the content to be filled into the bag by dirty fingers and the combined time consumption for filling the bag tends to be large.